Volvo competes in the Round the Island sailing race

Spent the weekend with a group of motoring journalists competing in the Round the Island sailing race. Organised by the Island Sailing Club on the Isle of Wight, the annual event attracts 1,800 yachts of all shapes and sizes.

And this year was no different. With serious 100ft racing yachts through to 25ft pleasure sailing boats, it's an event for all comers and the spectacle of all those boats on the Solent is a sight that has to be seen to be believed.

Volvo UK borrowed the experience of two Volvo Team for Life Olympic sailors to ensure that our two inexperienced journalist crews would at least get off the start line. Oh, and we were helped by half the normal crew who certainly knew a thing or two about sailing!

So, at 7:30am, our two 52ft racing yachts set off in the 60 nautical mile race. Volvo Team 2 played a blinder and shot off towards the Needles. On the far side of the Island, Volvo Team 1 came back into the game and passed around Ventnor. And so it stayed until the finish line.

While Team 1 celebrated, Team 2 knew those celebrations were in vain because the handicap system worked on the side of Team 2. In the IRC Gp 0 class that we were all competing in, Volvo Team 2 came in sixth in class and Team 1 came in 17th, out of a class of 45.

A fantastic result, even if I do say so myself, and made all the better when you consider that both boats, that were half crewed by absolute novices, actually crossed the finish line as the sixth and the ninth mono-hull boat home.

All aboard for 2010?

In the final tally,